Abel Tasman National Park

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We get up, fix breakfast and get ready for the hike today. We have adopted a German breakfast menu of hard sausage, cheese and bread. It is simple and hearty for a day of hiking.
As we get on the track today we follow instruction from someone Michael has talked to and walk to the lodge along the way. Michael treats himself to a restaurant coffee and we are amazed at the elegance of this lodge so far removed from civilization.
This is the hardest day of hiking with a lot of ups and downs, an early low-tide crossing and the highest elevations but we are rewarded with some beautiful views and the weather is spectacular. We stop at a nice campground picnic table for lunch. The end of the track is a very steep descent and we decide we will walk across the bay to the hut instead of taking the high tide track. This results in having to do a rock scramble at the end of the descent to reach the beach, which has a higher level of difficulty with a forty-pound pack on your back, after five hours of hiking. We prevail and stop to put on our sandals since our boots have finally dried out from the day before.
As we arrive at the Bark’s Bay hut there is another older couple that are looking for their packs. You can have water taxis deliver your packs from hut to hut along this track. Right at that moment we think it might be a good idea but we know we have to get conditioned to hiking with our packs for the Milford Track in December.
Each couple claims their sleeping accommodations in separate bunkrooms. I am feeling really dirty and find an open air shower with cold water. I decide that I will brave it to get cleaned off. I convince Michael to go with me, as there is no privacy. He suggests that I shower in my swim suit but that will make it difficult to clean the areas that I really want to clean. We go to the shower, I strip my clothes off and turn on the water. When I get in I realize that this will be a very short shower. The water is freezing cold. I wash my body quickly and let Michael have his turn. The shower reminds me of the shower scene in the movie South Pacific when I was a little girl.
Back at the hut we talk to the other couple. They are from Ithaca, New York. He is retired from the electric company and she teaches at Cornell University. They are in their early sixties and their daughter is working for a few years in Auckland, so they have come to NZ for a few months. A German couple comes in and takes the other end of our platform in the bunkroom. They kayaked in. A large kayaking group arrives and takes the upper platform in the other couple’s bunkroom, then two young male backpackers arrive and take the upper platform in our bunkroom. The other occupants are German and we find that they are not quite as sociable in general. We have a few short conversations with some of them while we are all fixing our dinners but end up eating with the other American couple. A little girl comes in and starts to talk to me. She is from Ireland, here with her family. They just left the United States and she tells me how she loved Disneyland. She is a darling girl, about ten years old. We talk briefly with her mother and they occupy a small bunkroom outside the main hut. While we are out washing our dishes sand flies bite me and they are very irritating to your skin. Michael and I both end up with small blisters from the bites on our feet.

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